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11/30/2014

When I began researching map collections to fulfill the requirements for this course, the basis was taking on the idea of exploring the counterpoint of digital holdings; information on paper. How they traced the history of communities that formed throughout the years, or even centuries, is the formula that shapes civilizations, and the beginning of gathering information that mandated accuracy for journeys in unknown lands. As I dove further into my research, I discovered there is a way to interpret a community of people that enthusiastically research and preserve maps. The storyline then shifted to the people who found inspiration from these maps, a category that had its diversity influence what information they sought.

This one revelation that will always be one way I am guided as an information professional. Our aspiration is to be in a profession that makes the experience and documentation from others available and accessible, so more information can be shared, interpreted, and passed on. It was inspiring to see what people do with the idea of a map, or what they researched from it to create. In the end, as information professionals, we help provide tools that aid in the creation of something -- even if it's just information temporarily retained. A piece of information is remembered, written down, or stays in the mind of the reader, and down the line it may be recalled and something with it. If it’s an idea they shared, then the map is the starting point for centuries of networking.

11/23/2014

The expanse of the Internet as a tool has increased map awareness in the Los Angeles community. It has provided a way for people to connect and share a technology that reaches out through blog posts. KCET Contributing Writer, Ed Fuentes has seen the communities come together, including a playful map community that came from a contest. “A big connection was how readers and viewers share their personal community,” Fuentes said. “Through the ‘Power of Place’ contest, where contestants drew maps of their neighborhood, we saw how people created an identity”. The contest was open to all, but kid's perspective comes with a point of view. Take a look at these emerging cartographers.

"Southern Migration" by Melissa Watson shows her family moving patterns that began in 1919 from Spokane, WA. From KCET:

Centered in the movements is the cartographer's own migration south to the Downtown Los Angeles area. Migrations are recorded via colored-coded arrows marked by the year and person. Also included, in their respective colors are the various Los County Metro train routes. Below a tiny boat filled with cargo travels south in the Pacific Ocean.

"Northern L.A.: Freeways" by Michael Shadovitz illustrates the freeways that connect us to various locations and neighborhoods. He refers to Thomas Guides and memory, proudly not tracing any reference material.

To Evren Lope, "Alhambra" is the center of the world. Though not accurate in scale and geography, the elements show observant details of the streets they are familiar with.

11/16/2014

Writing in the Wall: Social Media The First 2,000 Years by Tom Standage are interesting ideas how the concept of social media existed long before the days of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Flickr. The book is a thorough history on the ways humans share information with each other, beginning with the Roman Empire’s diurna, Julius Caesar's political move to record Senate events and then post them in public space, The Forum. In some cases scribes would copy information. Roman Citizens would go to the Forum to get information and pass it on. In today’s language citizens log on to the Forum to find day-to-day details to share.

Standage continues to include historical events ranging from the spread of his "Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences" by Martin Luther, often credited for initiating Protestant Reformation. There is power in recommendation, and sharing, and text value increases when a copy of thought is shared, and disseminated person-to person, writes Standage. Other events he cites as early use of social networking principles is the development of 17th century coffeehouses as site where intellectual thought was spread; the use of pamphlets as propaganda during the French and American Revolution; the use of postage mail to send letters and how that eventually led to circulation of newspapers; and the development of telegraph, radio, television, and the worldwide web. He ends with today’s social media.

What’s powerful about Standage's book is detailed historical information that doesn’t make facts dry when explaining connections, and how he ties the past message senders to the modern concept of social media. History re-framed in contemporary culture provides readers with aha moments, and in the spirit of a blog posts, uses less informal prose for consistently clever chapter titles, such as “How Luther Went Viral", "The Rebirth of Social Media", and "History Retweets Itself." The tone added emphasis in tying the past and present without force-feeding concepts.

Also insightful is how Standage defines historical stages by showing distinctive events when information was passed on during the latter part of the 20th century. For example, newspapers started out as local publications and became part of an industry, and headed by mogul tycoons, such as William Randolph Hearst. There is also the case on how airwaves became regulated after the sinking of Titanic, which helped push for the passing of the Radio Act of 1912. Although similar, I think it’s interesting and noteworthy these distinctions in defining social networks has us think how all information is shared between people, versus media, such as a standard press release.

How the book would be useful for information professionals goes beyond examining the various ways information is shared, but as an anthropology study. The first chapter explores humans as social creatures driven to spread information. The book shares interesting perspectives.

Writing in the Wall: Social Media The First 2,000 YearsAuthor: Tom Standage288 pagesPublished October 2013 by Bloomsbury USAISBN 1620402831

11/08/2014

Set in the near future Robot & Frank (2012) is a light-hearted comedy about an elderly man and introduces how nerd is the new cool, hence presenting the future cliché of portraying a library professional in film. When aging Frank (Frank Langella), an ex-thief, deals with failing memory and refuses to live in a nursing home, his estranged son, Hunter (James Marsden) purchases him a robot (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard) to help him with his mental and physical health. At first, Frank has disdain for Robot until he finds he is a smart assistant for cat burglar excursions. The climax comes when Frank becomes the suspect of a multi-million dollar jewelry heist, and the has a dilemma of erasing the Robot's memory.

Frank diminishing memory, and his decision to erase the Robot's memory, is a recurring theme in the film; to retain information from the past that is treasured. This can also be seen in the side story, as symbolized by the local library where Frank burns time and develops a relationship with Jennifer, the librarian (Susan Sarandon). And we are introduced to Jennifer who is duct-taping books, documents not treasured and treated with real repair, as she wears heavy glasses and a cardigan sweater, a pure reading of dowdy librarian image stereotype.

There is also a theme of old and new. The library is undergoing renovation under the watch of a new non-profit ready to "reimagine the modern library experience" and undergo complete digitalization. Books will be scanned and then tossed out to be recycled, with the exception of rare first edition books so old they need to be handled with white gloves, and will be preserved.

On comes the new cliché, Jake Fin (Jeremy Strong), the information professional consultant played with hipster tropes. He enters wearing trendy clear plastic framed glasses, a scrawny figure supplemented with an air of condescension and intellectual superiority, greeting Frank as "Old-Timer". He sees him as an archive ready to be disposed and not worth saving. "So you must remember the days when this library was the only way to learn about the world," says the hipster techie antagonist to Frank.

Jake leaves the introductory scene with a attitude filled exit: "Frank, I'd love to talk to you some more about your history with printed information. I mean you're our connection to the past, buddy."

Though he walks with nerdy cool, there is also an obnoxious know-it-all behavior only partially masked by his wealth and tech-is-cool attitude, waiting for the day nerds complete their world domination.

Though not part of the curriculum discussion, and if he wasn’t the villain, the film lost the chance to bring new visual codes that define library/informational professional, a future stereotype that could be attributed to tech industry Nerd/Hipster, which I now declare as The Nipster.

Maybe the old stereotype doesn’t look so bad now.

Somewhere, there must be a librarian who moonlights as a screenwriter and can introduce the true image of librarian on film.

10/26/2014

Scholars find research information in library collections but sometimes the materials can be controversial, as seen in “The Viking Deception,” a 2005 episode of the series NOVA. Authenticity is the course of discovery in the Vinland Map, an artifact at Yale University's Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library.

The 2005 documentary tracks the controversy and debate between historians and scholars over the Vinland Map as evidence of Viking explorers discovering America before Christopher Columbus, or how it’s a high profile example of 20th Century forgery. "We don't take a position on the Vinland map. I believe very strongly that we are here to make material available for the scholars to use. As far as it's being real or fake is concerned, that is for the scholars who study it to determine," says Alice Prochaska, Yale Librarian about the document with a questioned pedigree still treated as an actual artifact.

The map appears inside the medieval manuscript, the Tartar Relation, which in 1957 book dealers J.I. Davis and Enzo Ferrajoli brought to the British Museum to authenticate the volume in an attempt to sell it. The maps depicts lands conquered by the Mongols, the Himalayas, plus Japan, and to the West including an unknown land at the time called Vinlandia (Vinland), located in the same location where America lies. Above the land mass of Vinland is a short description of the Vikings' discovery of the land, which contradicts how Columbus was the first to step foot onto America. Still, Bertram Schofield, head of the Manuscript department, had his doubts and the volume was passed over.

When Laurence Witten, an American manuscript dealer and alumnus of Yale University, was introduced to Ferrajoli’s map, he was captivated by the volume and purchased it. Witten tries to authenticate the volume and while researching it finds holes eaten by bookworms in the map and the Tartar Relation. He comes to a dead end until a colleague from Yale's Sterling Library brings him a medieval manuscript called the Speculum Historiale. Witten removes the binding and also finds wormholes in the manuscripts. They align with the Vinland map on top, the Speculum Historiale placed in the middle, and the Tartar Relation on the bottom. The volume is offered to Yale University for sale. Alexander Vietor, curator of the map collection, contacts alumnus of Yale Billionaire Paul Mellon, who squires the volume for the library at an undisclosed price under the condition that the news be kept a secret until it could be authenticated again, then revealed to the public with dramatic flair.

Under a few years of secrecy three scholars were assigned to authenticate the volume and create a book for the map's unveiling, to be launched on the eve of Columbus Day in 1965. When the news about the map was released it was met with public outcry protesting Vikings getting credit for finding the New World. Many refused to believe Columbus did not discover America, which today is confirmed to be true that the Vikings beat Columbus to the New World.

Since the research conducted by the three scholars was limited, a conference was held by Yale and the Smithsonian a year after the unveiling to give others scholars the chance to examine the volume. Several issues were brought up, such as why the Viking's homeland was crudely drawn while Greenland was accurately depicted during a time before it was circumnavigated before the 19th century, and how Vikings did not have a history of creating or using maps.

The Viking Deception is a documentary that takes an interesting look into the Vinland map exploring its history and also shows how libraries are not without controversy. Yet, it reveals the importance of libraries keeping artifacts in preserved conditions allowing scholarly challenges to not be compromised, which upholds the Code of Ethics of the American Library Association.

10/12/2014

In 2000, Los Angeles artist J. Michael Walker was browsing though his Thomas Guide, which he called the precursor of Google Maps and GPS. When he hit the S section he noticed many streets were named after saints. Almost 103 streets were “sainted” and that had Walker see a connection when the City of Los Angeles was young and how Spanish settlers named streets after saints for protection. This is his inspiration for a long journey to look at local history and discover the intersection between saints and L.A.'s heritage. It became a series of paintings and first exhibited in 2008 at the Autry National Center, then published as a book, “Seeking the Soul of L.A. on Its Streets: Paintings and Stories.”

To create that painting and story from maps and history, Walker referred to city archives and library resources. "One of the first references I made came from a visit with a woman named Hynda Rudd, a legendary employee of the . . .city’s street bureau department,” Walker said. “She provided me with the 3 x 5 cards for the first dozen or so streets whose history I desired.” Rudd then guided Walker to a black leather bound book at the LAPL Reference Desk, stored in the History department.

That was crucial, as Walker needed as much information as possible to determine which specific saint was the namesake for a street. “There are sometimes more than one saint with the same name,” said Walker. “I then used various Catholic saints calendar books, some dating back to the 1700's.” Walker’s research led him to history books about Southern California and Los Angeles that dated back to the 19th century, which at the time were accessible in the stacks of the LAPL History Department, he said. “I was the first person to check many of these out, in decades.”

After assembling notes written in longhand on notebook or typed out, Walker kept them in dedicated manila folders, one for each saint and street. “Then with all my research I went out to visit the entire length of the street, sometimes walking it, to try to find the saint's presence on the street” he said. “Some were an immediate aha moment; others took more time."

Walker speaks of the importance of these resources being accessible for his creative process, and adding credibility that Los Angeles has history. He also reached out to historians, like Monsignor Francis J. Weber at the San Fernando Mission and Father Michael Engh at Loyola Marymount University. "Because I am an artist above all else, I wanted to ensure that my research was solid. I didn't want a ‘real’ historian of the City to take a look at my work and be able to immediately dismiss it,” he said.

Walker is still grateful to the saintly historian community. “Everyone I contacted was very generous and collegiate and thoughtful and kind to me,” he said. In exchange, the region is represented by Walker’s works that’s an intersection of several communities: maps, saints, and art.

09/28/2014

"The Art of Jo Mora" hosted by speaker Peter Hiller, curator of the Jo Mora Trust Collection, was held at The Los Angeles Public Library on September 21, 2014. The program highlighting the life and work of Mora (1847-1947) whose pictorial maps are a city treasure. Some of Mora’s work can be found in LAPL’s map collection.

Mora's interesting and rounded life was anchored as an illustrator for the Boston Herald with a syndicated strip, as well as working as a writer, and sculptor. His art can also be seen in northern California and in downtown Los Angeles on the facade of the Million Dollar Theater, Palace Theater, Los Angeles Examiner Building, and Pacific Mutual Building. Mora was influenced by seeing the Buffalo Bill West Show and had a great interest in other cultures, and lived with the Hopi and Navajo, according to Hiller. Mora was so embedded in American-Indian culture that he learned to speak Hopi, and when the Navajo went on hunting trips he was their guide.

The versatile artist is best known for his pictorial maps, colorful, and filled with whimsical illustrations incorporating history. (One of which can be seen on the Leave it to Beaver set, in Beaver's bedroom). To the Mark Taper Auditorium room, Hiller stated that Mora "loved history, loved particularly California history" and you "can see it in all his work".

Since Mora researched maps, and Hiller researched Mora, after the lecture, I researched Hiller and asked him about Mora's process of finding information for his creations. "Much of what Jo knew and learned was from first-hand experience," said Hiller in an email days after the panel. "He did have a nice personal library that included history books, which he certainly could have used for research."

Hiller adds that the repeated themes in Mora's work, such as California history, may have been retained at first glance. "His son thought Jo had a photographic memory. "

As an artist Mora depended on visual reference and there's no documentation on how much time he spent with other mapmakers, but Hiller speculates he was in contact with some. "I have been told by someone familiar with Ruth Taylor White that the two of them corresponded," said Hiller. "Which would make sense as they had a similar interest in pictorial maps."

It is interesting to note while seeking information about Mora, and asking Hiller directly about him, I, in a small way, became part of the map community.

09/13/2014

The City of Los Angeles can be described as a large metropolis layered with many neighborhoods filled with many ethnic groups. That city’s diversity is constantly changing, and redefining the region’s eclectic atmosphere. From that, there’s a subculture in search for the city’s place and history. Through maps, discovering the paths to L.A.’s origins are a resource.

Glen Creason, Map Librarian for the Los Angeles Public Library has insight into the camaraderie of map enthusiasts, itself a diverse group. “The local map community is surprisingly strong and seems to encompass all sorts of levels of age, education, economic background, ethnicity and hipness,” Creason said. "I take pride in the friendliness and good rapport we enjoy with local nerds, wonks, geeks, historians, writers, scholars and students.”

“Through the conduit of maps and local history I have met many extremely interesting and generous people,” said Creason.

This quiet community of Angelenos committed to find a sense of place has made Creason a figurehead. “I have been able to increase my knowledge of the city and historical maps by speaking at a variety of events, probably 20 at least,” said the map librarian who now speaks about maps with small neighborhood groups, or in a packed LAPL Taper auditorium for ALOUD programming, or wherever various map enthusiasts can find to congregate.

The LAPL map collection gets heavy use online. “Local historians and bloggers use maps extensively and occasionally give LAPL credit for use,” Creason said of blogs like KCET, Curbed LA, Militant Angeleno, viewfromaLoft, LA Observed, Vintage LA, and LA as Subject; They all use maps once in a while”. Online media has also given the map collection visibility and transcended geographic locations bringing Angelenos together, while providing a online space for people to share, comment, and connect socially.

Creason then maps his timeline as librarian. “The main reason why I don’t retire after 35 years on this job is that I just have too much fun with my collection to give it up,” said the LA map man.

08/31/2014

Map of Old Chinatown before Chinese Americans were relocated due to construction of Union Station. "New Chinatown" is north of the original location along N. Broadway. Lisa See's memoir traced her family history back 150 years set within the two Chinatown communities. Today, "New Chinatown" is marked as "Old Chinatown". Credit: Los Angeles Library Photo Collection.

It started with a book. I read Lisa See’s On Gold Mountain while studying Art History at Cal State LA, which came after a transfer from San Francisco State University as a freshman. The move to downtown Los Angeles reconnected me to the neighborhood of my early childhood and See’s book had me revisit Chinatown and listen for stories and voices from my past.

From there, I saw how tales are documented and when saved, or archived, can also be part of a visual narrative, as I began an internship that helped find community stories so they became content for public art. After my internship I began working within museums that translated documented stories into exhibitions.

Now looking back, and excited to be a graduate student of Library and Information Science, my personal story about finding adaptation of information goes on. For my Information Communities coursework, I plan to explore these themes by surveying map collections, our footprints, as documents that show the formation of communities.

08/28/2014

Things have changed. Libraries have shifted to a variety of e-things: e-books, e-audiobooks, e-music, and downloadable e-videos. This makes items accesible without ever having to step inside a library. While techonology has changed the library experience, there's a hint of it between floors at the Los Angeles Central Library.

Standing inside the elevator in the Tom Bradley Wing at the Central Library, I'm looking through the glass and see catalog cards installed on the walls of the elevator shaft. An older Angeleno walks into the elevator and breaks my contemplation. "You know they put those in after the fire in 1986," he said. I look at him and nod in acknowledgment. He takes it as an ok to tell me more. "That's their catalog before they put everything online," he said before sharing more memories, like how the cards had their own special draw, and his days of investing time to master the Dewey Decimal System.

The cards on the walls are "A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place," a public art piece created by David Bunn that uses discarded cards as cultural artifact. He wrote: